Caption: Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of Marine anaerobic bacillus bacterium with spinae. This bacterium is an unidentified rod-shaped bacterium from the Black Sea (122 meter depth). The bacterium has non-cellular appendages called spinae that likely help the bacterium stay suspended in the water column. The Black Sea is characterized by a permanently stratified water column and represents the largest anoxic basin in the world. The stratified water column in the Black Sea is believed to host more active and diverse microbial assemblages than anywhere else in the pelagic oceans. Magnification: x12,000 when shortest axis printed at 25 millimetres.